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- <text id=93TT2447>
- <title>
- Feb. 08, 1993: Speaking in Tongues
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993
- Feb. 08, 1993 Cyberpunk
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK
- SOCIETY, Page 23
- Speaking in Tongues
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>Puerto Rico now has two official languages: Spanish and English
- </p>
- <p> On Sunday, 100,000 people rallied in San Juan to send a
- message that needed no translation: they wanted to keep a 1991
- law that made Espanol--and Espanol only--Puerto Rico's
- official language. But the next day, the Puerto Rican legislature
- passed a bill making both Spanish and English official languages
- in the U.S. commonwealth. Later, Governor Pedro Rossello signed
- the measure, saying, "Now we have two hymns, two flags, two
- languages."
- </p>
- <p> The language issue is linked by some Puerto Ricans to the
- campaign to make the island America's 51st state. Rossello is
- pro-statehood, and so is a majority of the legislature. Carlos
- Romero-Barcelo, Puerto Rico's resident commissioner in the U.S.
- House of Representatives, has only limited voting rights in that
- body, and he calls the new law a step toward full
- representation. Says Romero: "We in Puerto Rico want to be
- viewed as citizens."
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-